The High Cost of America's Health Care

Look to your health; and if you have it, praise God and value it next to conscience; for health is the second blessing that we mortals are capable of, a blessing money can't buy.

-Izaak Walton

From "One Minute Wellness" by Dr. Ben Lerner with Dr. Greg Loman:

By now it should come as no surprise that the U.S. healthcare system is the most expensive in the world. The World Health Organization estimates that we spend $4,887 per person on health care each year, far exceeding the annual amount spent by other countries (Canadians, at number two, spend $2,792) That's largely due to the higher cost of medical technology, the salaries of medical professionals, and ever-increasing hospital costs. As the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine put it, "The American healthcare system is at once the most expensive and the most inadequate system in the developed world." Half of all personal bankruptcies are caused by medical expenses.

"What do we get for the most expensive health care in the world?" Dr. Mercola asks. "The best system for treating acute emergencies-and a system that has failed at treating chronic illness. The high cost of the health-care system is considered to be a necessary burden. This, however, could be more easily tolerated under the assumption that better health results from more expensive care and more advanced technology."